I have a Thinkpad X240s. When I try to install Debian Bullseye, after installation the screen remains only black. Is there a way to obtain some useful debugging information? I'd really like to get it running.

<div dir="ltr">I have a Thinkpad X240s. When I try to install Debian Bullseye, after installation the screen remains only black. Is there a way to obtain some useful debugging information? I&#39;d really like to get it running. </div>

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Albert, good morning!

There is a Debian wiki about ThinkPad computers... But, the X240S isn't listed. You can check here: https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Thinkpad
There is a mailing list about ThinkPad too... You can check here: http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-thinkpad that can be better for you.

If anyone can help our friend with this specific model, that would be great! :)

Best,
Yuri Musachio Montezuma da Cruz

On Feb 28 2023, at 9:17 am, Anastasios Lisgaras <[email protected]> wrote:

On 2/28/23 09:51, Albert Cornelius wrote:

I have a Thinkpad X240s. When I try to install Debian Bullseye, after installation the screen remains only black. Is there a way to obtain
some useful debugging information? I'd really like to get it running.

Hello Albert,
I am running Debian GNU/Linux 11.6 (bullseye) on ThinkPad P1 Gen 3 with
GNOME 3.38.5 and Wayland without any problems.
But I have enabled the `contrib non-free` repositories of course ( cat /etc/apt/sources.list ).

You can try to login using only the TTY - no graphical interface -.
When your system is up and you see just the black screen, try to press : ctrl-alt-F1 or ctrl-alt-F2 and login with your user.
After that enable the `contrib non-free` repositories and update your
system. Reboot and check again.

* https://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList
* https://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=112525

<div>Albert, good morning!</div><br><div>There is a Debian wiki about ThinkPad computers... But, the X240S isn't listed. You can check here: https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Thinkpad</div><div>There is a mailing list about ThinkPad too... You
can check here: http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-thinkpad that can be better for you.</div><br><div>If anyone can help our friend with this specific model, that would be great! :)</div><br><br><br><br><div><div>Best,</div><div>
Yuri Musachio Montezuma da Cruz</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote_attribution">On Feb 28 2023, at 9:17 am, Anastasios Lisgaras &lt;[email protected]&gt; wrote:</div><blockquote><div><div>On 2/28/23 09:51, Albert Cornelius wrote:</div><div>&gt;
I have a Thinkpad X240s. When I try to install Debian Bullseye, after</div><div>&gt; installation the screen remains only black. Is there a way to obtain</div><div>&gt; some useful debugging information? I'd really like to get it running.</div><br><div>
Hello Albert,</div><br><div>I am running Debian GNU/Linux 11.6 (bullseye) on ThinkPad P1 Gen 3 with</div><div>GNOME 3.38.5 and Wayland without any problems.</div><div>But I have enabled the `contrib non-free` repositories of course ( cat</div><div>/etc/
apt/sources.list ).</div><br><div>You can try to login using only the TTY - no graphical interface -.</div><div>When your system is up and you see just the black screen, try to press :</div><div>ctrl-alt-F1 or ctrl-alt-F2 and login with your user.</div><

After that enable the `contrib non-free` repositories and update your</div><div>system. Reboot and check again.</div><br><div>* https://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList</div><div>* https://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=112525</div></div></blockquote><

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Albert,

I think you need the tty and you need tro find out what's actually happening, using commandline tools and system logs (e.g. the X log in either /tmp or /var/log, or dmesg and journalctl).

For startes have a look into https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/General_troubleshooting especuially the second chapter 'bootproblems'. Most stuff here is not arch specific.

Good luck !

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Hi Albert,
* Albert Cornelius <[email protected]> [2023-02-28; 09:51 +01]:

I have a Thinkpad X240s. When I try to install Debian Bullseye, after installation the screen remains only black. Is there a way to obtain some useful debugging information? I'd really like to get it running.

I run Debian bullseye on a x240 (without the "s").

Do you install with the graphical installer or with the
ncurses one?

What does "after the installation" mean exactly? fter
first reboot?

Ciao; Gregor

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Albert,

If X would not launch then you would normally end up in a 'terminal' console. If it is tty type then problems like yours are unlikely. But many laptops get configured to use a framebuffer console, for better fonts and colors. Then there could be a
machine specific framebuffer module issue.

I don't know if that's still valid but back in the days one could append a 'nofb' kernelparemeter to the grub (bootloader) menu entry. There were several other parameters achieving the same result, like 'nomodeset' or 'vga=0'.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Linux_console

If you can access the grub boot menu (where you also chose between default boot or advanced, like rescue mode) then enter the grub internal editor with an escape key, i think it was 'e' - but better RTFM.

https://wiki.debian.org/Grub

If a new kernel parameter solves the issue then you can make the setting permanent by editing the file /etc/default/grub (for Debian; which in turn will be applied to the /etc/grub.d/xx_linux file) to contain this kernelparameter. You need to run the
command (sudo) update-grub to activate it.


Another thing that might be worth trying is to switch to a tty console with Ctrl+Alt+F1 then back to the X screen with Ctrl+Alt+F7. There were reports that the screen was reinitialized properly just by that.

(or just switch with repeated Alt+Arrow-left until X is reached. Which from tty1 should be just the next one to the 'left'.)

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